Asymptomatic

Enough people were commenting on a gift guide from a previous year that I thought I might write up a new one this year. The items on this list are practically all on my own personal wish list. The prices listed are approximate -- you can probably find deals on all of this stuff if you look even a little bit.

Meade TrussTube Dobsonian Telescope

If you read here regularly, you will know that I like astronomy. There's something about space that has piqued my interest since I was a kid. Berta got me a really great telescope for Christmas one year, one of the Meade models with the computerized star finders, but the aperture of the telescope is such that you can't really see the full depth of the sky.

This Meade Light Bridge telescope comes in parts that you assemble in the field, and lets you build a fairly large scope with an aperture from 8 inches to 18 inches in diameter. That'll get you a lot of sky. The size of the telescope causes the price to vary, but the 8 inch model starts around $390....

There is no Christmas shopping done. I think we've just about given up this year. My only enthusiasm for this holiday so far is for it to be over. Of the bazillion lights we bought last year to put outside, we've hung exactly zero.

I think we blew through our Christmas enthusiasm on the weekend after Thanksgiving when we went tree shopping, couldn't find the usual place, and ended up with a decent but pre-cut tree. I wasn't home when Berta and the kids decorated both trees this year. The one in the family room still isn't done being decorated, I think. And thinking about it now, I wonder if I'm going to have the stamina for two trees worth of holiday.

To accompany the live tree in the living room we're getting new furniture on Tuesday. A loveseat. Some form of seating has been on order from somewhere or other since September, and is only now arriving. Note that this is only half of the pieces that were ordered. Some kind of leather chair is yet to have a delivery date. ...